State Gets $12 Million As UConn Law Library Settlement

HARTFORD — The state has received about $12 million from more than two dozen companies it sued over construction problems at the UConn law school library, closing a case that arose after significant structural and safety problems were discovered soon after the building opened 18 years ago.

The state received $12,073,001.20 on Tuesday, resolving the lawsuit filed in 2008. The payment was made by 28 defendants and their insurance carriers under terms of a mediated settlement, said Stephanie Reitz, a UConn spokeswoman.

A breakdown of the payouts was not available from the university or from the attorney general's office. State lawyers withdrew the lawsuit Wednesday at Superior Court in Waterbury.

The six years of litigation included a precedent-setting, state Supreme Court ruling that the state is not bound by statutes of limitations when filing suit to recoup on behalf of taxpayers. The high court's decision was viewed at the time to have wide implications for the construction industry.

The façade of the Thomas J. Meskill Law Library sprung leaks and had other structural and safety problems after its 1996 opening. Granite came loose, and walls and carpets became moldy from the leaking water, prompting former Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, now a U.S. senator, to call it a "house of horrors."

The library, designed to be a jewel on the state university's law campus in Hartford's West End, was for years an eyesore, hidden by scaffolding as engineers sought to plumb and repair its leaks.

The award-winning, five-story building was designed by S/L/A/M Collaborative, an architectural firm in Glastonbury. The construction manager was Gilbane Building Co. of Rhode Island. Lombardo Bros. and Mason Contractors erected the façade, taking granite from the same quarry used for the other Gothic Revival structures on campus, built in the early 20th century. Each of those companies was among the defendants in the lawsuit.

By 2007, the building was so damaged by leaks and flaws in its façade that the state estimated the cost to fix it at $19 million, nearly as much as the $24 million cost to build it. The repair estimate had been $12 million two years earlier but jumped after, the university said, a detailed "forensic" study revealed more extensive problems.

The university used money from the $2.3 billion UConn 2000 construction budget to pay for the repairs. Blumenthal said at a 2008 press conference to announce the lawsuit that the university had only recently discovered that the exterior walls of the library lacked reinforcement bars. The repairs have since been completed.

Attorney General George Jepsen said the settlement was in the best interest of the state and its taxpayers.

"Not only does the agreement prevent further litigation costs to all parties, it provides for significant monetary recovery for the state," he said in a statement.

Timothy S. Fisher, dean of the UConn School of Law, expressed relief that the lengthy litigation was over.

"We finally have a law library that is safe and secure, and fair compensation for the extra costs the taxpayers had to endure to achieve this result," he said. "This was possible only because of the sustained effort by the University and the Office of the Attorney General over the 10 years it took to get a fair settlement," said Fisher, a former partner at McCarter & English LLP.

The law firm was co-counsel with the attorney general's office on the case — and Fisher was the primary attorney representing the state — before joining UConn last year as its law school dean.

"At its dedication in 1996, my predecessor Dean Hugh Macgill described our law library as 'a building that only a tyrant need fear,''' Fisher said. "His wonderful vision reminded us that a library is the universal source of knowledge, and an essential building block of a just society."

"How ironic, however, that hidden defects actually rendered the building unsafe to its very users," Fisher said.